Iowa DOT hoping to fast-track I-380 interchange at Forevergreen Road

NORTH LIBERTY - State officials are considering expedited construction on a Forevergreen Road interchange with Interstate 380 to pre-empt a major overhaul of the nearby and long-awaited interchange of I-380 and Interstate 80.

However, for such a project to succeed in reducing the impact of the I-80/I-380 interchange, the state is seeking an agreement with North Liberty to upgrade a now gravel portion of Forevergreen Road to handle additional traffic flow.

Newman Abuissa, area engineer with the Iowa Department of Transportation, who has been working with North Liberty city staff for about six months, provided an update on the two interchange projects during Tuesday's North Liberty City Council meeting.

'This came about actually because of what we're doing on I-80 and I-380,” Abuissa said. 'We felt an additional interchange would be a good idea to help divert traffic ... It started with an urgent need for this to start as soon as possible.”

How soon? State officials hope to have the roughly two-year Forevergreen Road interchange finished by 2018 and immediately begin the bulk of the I-80/I-380 project the following year, Abuissa said.

While the state will take up design and construction costs of the interchange and the adjacent Forevergreen Road updates, North Liberty will be asked to front the - at this point undetermined - cost of any additional paving and widening costs to Forevergreen Road associated with the project, as that area is categorized as a local road.

Johnson County, Coralville and Tiffin also may need to update nearby roads at some point to handle traffic, Abuissa said.

The Iowa DOT is completing an interchange justification report and National Environmental Policy Act document - a process that will cost the state between $100,000 and $200,000 - for the Forevergreen Road interchange, which should be submitted to the Federal Highway Administration by the end of this year, said Cathy Cutler, transportation planner with the Iowa DOT District 6 office in Cedar Rapids.

The FHA should complete its review of the two documents by early 2016, Abuissa said.

Cutler said the I-80/I-380 project will impact some nearby residential and agricultural land, but most of the land for the new interchange will fall on current right of way property. A portion of Kansas Avenue, located southwest of the interchange, will need to be relocated in the process.

Updates to the I-80/I-380 interchange - tentatively planned to take place from 2018-2020 - have been in discussion for years now, but growth in North Liberty has begun to push the Forevergreen Road project further into the spotlight, Cutler said.

'We've also seen some demands in the area, there's a lot of growth,” she said. 'Forevergreen Road is possibly on a faster track than we had thought earlier.”

Cutler said adding interchange lanes at Forevergreen Road could help lighten the burden on the I-80/I-380 interchange when work begins and act as a detour route for incident management situations.

Due to the high volumes of traffic the I-80/I-380 interchange sees daily, Cutler said the highway can never close entirely and is planned to maintain a minimum of two lanes both ways at all times during updates.

Later this month, area residents are invited to a public information meeting hosted by the Iowa DOT to discuss improvements to the I-80/I-380 and U.S. Highway 218 interchange. The Forevergreen Road interchange project will be included in the meeting.

The Sept. 29 meeting will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Coralville Public Library, 1401 Fifth St.

' What: Informational meeting on upgrade of I-380/80 interchange and new I-380/Forevergreen Road interchange

' Hosted by: Iowa Depart-ment of Transportation

' When: 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 29

' Where: Coralville Public Library, 1401 Fifth St.